Unusual Glock Knives

The new Gaston J. Glock knife made from the steel of the Nazi battleship Tirpitz.

Gaston (aka Gaston J. Glock Style LP) is now selling two knives that I find a bit odd. One is from tank barrels, while the second is from part of the Nazi war machine.

The Leopard Battle Tank knife is a fixed blade knife made from the steel of German tank barrels. These knives use parts of the barrels of the old Leopard 1 A3 battle tank, and add a maple root handle.

According to Gaston, the blades are made from “LEO-Damast” which they describe as a 320-layer Damascus steel. I’m not an expert on knives (perhaps Randall, M@ and others can chime in), but do tank barrels make for good blades? I hope so; retail price on this knife is $1390.

Another knife introduced by Gaston is the Battleship Tirpitz hunting knife. The blade on this knife is made of steel from the German World War II ship that was destroyed at great cost by the Allied forces.

The Tirpitz knife also claims a 320-layer Damascus steel blade. It has a black-finished maple burl handle. It also retails for $1390.

The Tirpitz was the second (and final) Bismarck class battleship built during the reign of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (aka Nazi.) Madman Adolph Hitler was already fuhrer when the keel was laid and he later attended the christening.

When destroyed, the Tirpitz took more than 900 German sailors with her. Prior to her sinking in November of 1944, the ship lost more than 140 sailors in other attacks. There were substantial Allied losses as a result of the Tirpitz’s operations throughout the war (directly and indirectly).

I enjoy reading and exploring history as much as the next guy. But I find it a little odd for an Austrian company to make knives out of a Nazi battleship, especially one where so many lives were lost. I hope no one is planning on making any USS Arizona knives. But even if they did, at least those knives would be part of the history that stopped genocide, not furthered it.

[Ed. note: I received a pleasant e-mail from a representative of the Gaston company regarding these knives. The metals used are a “…proprietary melding of metals,” which include metal from the above mentioned sources. The metals are then folded 320 times to form the blade.

Additionally, I am not accusing the Gaston company of supporting the Nazi party. Rather, I merely believe producing a knife whose claim to fame is that it uses metal from part of the Nazi war machine is in poor taste.]